John of Austria the Younger

John of Austria the Younger (7 April 1629-17 September 1679) was a Spanish general who served as Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1656 to 1659, succeeding Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria and preceding Luis de Benavides Carrillo.

Biography
John of Austria the Younger was the illegitimate son of King Philip IV of Spain and the popular actress Maria Calderon, and he was trained for military command and political administration. In 1647, he crushed Masaniello's uprising in Naples, and he was sent to Sicily before arriving in Catalonia in 1651 and presiding over the final siege and capture of Barcelona a year later. He became a popular royal favorite for his pleasant personality, and he was sent to command in Flanders in 1656 to crush a revolt against Spain. During the Franco-Spanish War, he was defeated at the Battle of the Dunes, and he failed to raise the siege of Dunkirk. From 1661 to 1662, he fought against Portugal's armies in the Extremadura, and his army briefly succeeded in overrunning southern Portugal in 1663 before reinforcements from England assisted the Portuguese in repelling the Spanish invasion. In 1669, he became Viceroy of Aragon, and he died ten years later.